On November 29, 1957 Carnegie Hall hosted a fundraising benefit to help the Morning Side Heights community center in Harlem. On the bill of the star studded event was the Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, Billy Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Chet Baker and Sonny Rollins. There were rumors that the show would be recorded for Voice Of America, a radio broadcasting company that broadcasts American music overseas, but there was never any evidence that the recording took place. Until now.

In February of 2005 the tapes from this historic night were found at the Library of Congress by Larry Appelbaum who during his routine duties of digitizing old tapes came across a worn box scarcely labeled "sp. Event 11/29/57 carnegie jazz concert" with one tape simply bearing the name "T.Monk.” And just like that, one of the most exciting line-ups in jazz history had been recovered. And although the line up of this Carnegie Hall event was spectacular, the Coltrane and Monk collaboration was the set that stole the show.

Thelonius Monk was a master pianist, and one of the architects of Bebop, whose compositions were so crazily complex, devotees are still rarely able to mine his style. "Monk gathered up the techniques of Ellington, Tatum, Jelly Roll Morton, Gospel and his own style of Rag Time and he came up with a new form of playing, his even blusier," says Rahsaan Morris Clarke of the Jazz Institute in Chicago, explaining Monk's style of modal piano playing.

1957 marked a pivotal time in the lives of the two musicians, signaling a rebirth. Monk had just begun to play again on the New York jazz scene. His Cabaret Card had been confiscated by the police in 1951 because he refused to testify against his friend Bud Powell, the legendary and tragic pianist, when narcotics were found in his car. And Coltrane, the self actualizing, tenor saxophonist, had just begun a major transformation: kicking his substance abuse issues after being fired from the Miles Davis band and devoting his time to studying various spiritual and philosophical teachings.

Their very brief time to together, a mere nine months, was immensely under recorded and resulted in only three studio recordings. Their legendary five month stint at the New York's Five Spot was barely documented except for a session recorded by Naima Monk, Coltrane’s wife, on her handheld device. So, with the release of Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note & Thelonius Records) on September 26, 2005, nearly 50 years after the fact, jazz enthusiasts got the opportunity to bear witness to the brilliance of two jazz giants at their best.

"These live recordings of Monk and Coltrane together at Carnegie Hall are a kismet discovery of Masters casually at work.  The introduction to "Monk's Mood" with just the two of them is priceless," says A. Scott Galloway, Music Editor of the Urban Network

The CD features two short sets, nine songs in total, with much of the set list featuring work from Monk’s catalogue. Rounding out the personnel with Monk and Coltrane are bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and drummer Shadow Wilson. "Monk was one of my original cultural heroes," Amiri Baraka notes in the CDs liner notes, which has five essays from figures instrumental in jazz documentation and education.

"You can almost hear Monk ending one piece and plunging immediately into another thinking, "What will Trane play on THIS one?" recalls Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalism Association.”Coltrane is noticeably more assured, having thoroughly mastered Monk's tricky compositions so that their two distinct approaches merge most beautifully."

"Many people are still looking for the next big thing. They haven't found the next Miles so it is a blessing to find these gems," says Bridget Arnwine, L.A. Based music writer for All About Jazz. "Find some more, I can't listen to another Kenny G Record!"

For more information check out Blue Note Records
http://www.bluenote.com/

For more on Layla Amatullah Barrayn go to http://gotjazz.info.And for more on Layla's work, check out her upcoming photography show Black and Tan Fantasy @ http://tinypic.com/k13ybq.jpg